ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603250045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
note: above
Defiant to the end, militia member Bill Stump stood before his sentencing judge in federal court Friday and tried to serve him with three more lawsuits.
The judge in turn gave Stump a big break, sentencing him to just two months in jail and two months under house arrest.
Although federal guidelines called for Stump to get at least 27 months in prison, Chief U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser said they didn't apply in Stump's case. Stump said he plans to appeal.
In remarks to the court, Stump again argued that he harmed no one when he used a friend's illegally silenced rifle in target practice. He was indicted after a member of the Pulaski County citizens' militia he belonged to, the Blue Ridge Hunt Club, turned out to be an informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
There were no victims, nobody harmed, Stump told the judge. The government shouldn't be allowed to send him to prison, or what he called "Congress' sodomy camps," he said.
Because of the short length of his sentence, he probably will get to avoid federal prison and serve his time in a local jail.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis had urged Kiser not to go easy on Stump, because he is unremorseful and refuses to acknowledge the authority of federal courts. His defense has been one of "willful ignorance," and it should not be rewarded with mercy, the prosecutor said.
If Stump weren't incarcerated, he and others in the militia movement would feel justified in their belief that federal courts hold little power over them, Wolthuis argued before the sentence was imposed.
"The question I have is: Do we impose a harsher sentence on someone where - for lack of a better term - a little learning is a dangerous thing?" Kiser asked Wolthuis. "Stump has been tenaciously hanging on to what he believes is the legal posture of this case. Should that be a consideration?"
In the end, the judge decided not to factor Stump's unorthodox beliefs about the Constitution and federal law enforcement into his sentence. He imposed no fine, but put Stump on three years' probation.
Stump's beliefs that the federal judiciary and law enforcement agencies have assumed illegal powers did factor into his punishment indirectly. He turned down a plea agreement that would have meant no jail time. Instead, he chose to exercise his constitutional right to a jury trial, representing himself.
Stump's case has dragged on far longer than those of his four co-defendants. The organizer of the Blue Ridge Hunt Club and the owner of the illegal silencers, James Roy Mullins, pleaded guilty to weapons and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. The man Wolthuis called the "second most culpable," Paul Peterson, was sentenced to four months of house arrest after he cooperated, as was another member of the militia. The difference in those cases, Wolthuis said, was that those men owned up to their legal responsibility.
One man was acquitted. Another man who also fired the silenced weapons along with Stump was not indicted, a decision by the government that Kiser said was "reasonable."
"Of all these people, Mr. Stump - because of the tenacity of his beliefs - is going to fare worse than they did," Kiser said. "This is not the government's doing; it's his doing."
Stump has been dogged in his campaign to rein in the federal government's powers, filing lawsuits in federal court and Pulaski County court to have the federal judiciary declared unconstitutional and to have his prosecution thrown out.
After his sentencing, Stump said he has more to do. "I'm still trying to stop the crime."
He is free pending appeal. Kiser sent him on to the 4th U.S. Circuit of Appeals with a smile, telling Stump that court "will provide you at least three more judges."
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff Bill Stump and his wife, Tracey,by CNBand sons, (from left) Jimmy, 5, Stuart, 1, and Pete, 7, outside
federal court in Roanoke on Friday. Stump was sentenced to spend
two months in jail.